'I didn't know she was transgender, before I hollered': Brooklyn man faces up to 25 years in prison for killing a woman he was flirting with after he realized she was transgender '

'didn't want to be fooled' Dixon told police, after his friends ridiculed him

Story after the cut ....

Islan Nettles

James Dixon, 25, was charged with beating a transgender woman to death Dixon had been flirting with 21-year-old Islan Nettles before the attack and he said he was unaware that she was transgender He told cops he experienced 'blind fury' when he attacked Nettles and said he didn't realize the damage Nettles died from head injuries she sustained when her head hit pavement Dixon, who now faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted, recently rejected a plea offer of 12 years in prison in exchange for a guilt admission. A Brooklyn man charged with beating a woman to death in Harlem told
police he 'didn't want to be fooled' after he realized he had been
flirting with a transgender woman.

James
Dixon, 25, told prosecutors that he had been flirting with 21-year-old
Islan Nettles moments before the attack and was unaware that she was
transgender.

Dixon
at first denied he was trying to 'holler' at Nettles before the fatal
encounter until NYPD Detective Thaddeus Hall called his bluff during a
2013 interrogation, according to the New York Daily News.

'There's something that leads up to the altercation. 'Did you try to holler at her?' Hall said.

Dixon said in the interview that he became enraged when one of his friends taunted him, saying, 'That's a guy'.

Photo: Steven Hirsch

James Dixon
(left), 25, told prosecutors that he had been flirting with 21-year-old
Islan Nettles (right) moments before the attack and was unaware that
she was transgender

+4

In his confession
Dixon said he pushed himself away from Nettles (pictured) and started
to walk away, but she then shoved him from behind, forcing him to trip.
After getting back to his feet, he said he hit her and knocked her to
the sidewalk and then punched her a second time as she lay on the ground

'I just remember lashing out,' he said.

Dixon
agreed that he felt his 'manhood' was threatened by his streak of
unknowingly hitting on transgender women, according to the Daily News.

He
is charged with manslaughter and assault in the August 17, 2013 death
of Nettles, who was attacked just after midnight outside a police
station at 147th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

A
videotape of Dixon's confession was played during a pretrial hearing
Friday to determine if his confession could be used as evidence at his
trial next week, according to The New York Times.

Prosecutors
say Nettles died of head injuries she sustained when her head hit the
pavement as Dixon hit her. She was taken off life support after a week
in a coma.

In
his confession Dixon said he pushed himself away from Nettles, and
started to walk away, but she then shoved him from behind, forcing him
to trip.

After
getting back to his feet, he said he hit her and knocked her to the
sidewalk. He then punched her a second time as she lay on the ground,
according to The Times.

Justice Daniel P Conviser ruled the statements admissible.

Nettles, who was an assistant at a fashion company, was walking with two transgender friends when the attack occurred.

Photo: Michael Appleton/nytimes Relatives of James Dixon with his lawyer, Norman Williams, right, last year after Mr. Dixon’s arraignment in Manhattan.

+4

Nettles, who was an assistant at a
fashion company, was walking with two transgender friends when the
attack occurred just after midnight outside a police station (pictured)
at 147th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard

Dixon
crossed the street and began chatting with Nettles. 'I remember asking
her what is her name, where are you from,' he said. 'That's how I roll
up.'

His friends started 'clowning' him as he was talking to Nettles, according to The Times.

Dixon
said he had no hatred toward transgender people he just 'didn't want to
be fooled' as he had been ridiculed by his friends days earlier when
two transgender women approached him.

Again, he didn't realize they were transgender so he flirted with them and he was teased badly by his friends.

Three days after the assault Dixon turned himself in to the police and confessed.

He
told cops he experienced 'blind fury' when he attacked Nettles and said
he didn't realize the damage he caused until hearing the gossip in his
neighborhood, according to the Daily News.

Dixon,
who now faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted, recently rejected a
plea offer of 12 years in behind bars in exchange for a guilt
admission.

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